Metaphorical Comparisons
by theBrillianceofNight
Summary: Because, in the end, you see a family. Screwed up and confusing as heck at times, perhaps, but a family. There are no definite roles, but whatever they are, they're a family, first and foremost. Team 7 centric, from an unexpected P.O.V...


Naruto is summer. He's brightness like the sun, energy, brightness, warmth. Growth, like the rice in the paddies or the small unripe green apples on trees. Naruto is joy, happiness, enjoyment, smiles, and laughter. Naruto is summer.

Sasuke is winter. He's frosty, cold, dark and often gloomy. Winter is deadly in so many ways, whether by freezing, hypothermia, frostbite, blizzards, or burial by snow. Sasuke is deadly in so many ways, to body, mind, psyche, and spirit, and he sucks away warmth. Sasuke is a dirty gray sky. But Sasuke is also feathery snowflakes dancing on the wind, nearly invisible unless caught by the light in the right way. He's snow sparkling when the sun catches on it, a crisp clean breeze when a blizzard isn't raging. Sasuke is winter when the sun's out, and he's winter when the moon puts a silvery touch on everything, and he's winter when dark clouds shed frozen tears.

Sakura is spring. Her name aside, she is healing, new starts, and growth after the harshness of winter. She's warm, though not as warm as summer, and she nurtures, cares, and beautifies.

Kakashi is fall. He is the result of growth, the summers of preceding relationships, the hardships of winters past, and the starts of spring combined into a product. He's not finished growing yet, though, like those winter vegetables that continue to grow as the leaves fall, and Kakashi is a constant. While spring weather may be capricious and summers too hot or too cold, and while winter can be a gentle lamb or a cruel scourge, fall comes with ostentatious colors signaling the way, identifying a definite end before the gray nothingness and in-between of winter. That's not to say that winter is unimportant, but Kakashi is fall.

The sun, shining brightly, leading, revealing things unseen... Naruto is the sun. He's so important to so many people, to so many relationships, but people often don't notice until he's missing, much like people often don't appreciate the sun until it's been gone for far too long. He's often pushed to the back of the mind when people don't need him, but he's always there. Whether obscured by clouds or on the other side of the world, he's still always there. Naruto is the sun.

A star, twinkling captivatingly, but so far away, so unaffected by the problems of man... Sasuke is a star. He's no moon, he shines with his own light and isn't just a pale, watered-down copy of the sun. He's bright and shining in his own way, but he's distant. No one has ever really known for sure what true potential he has, even though his clan name, like the color of a white star, gives hints. He's not always there, either, and he is fine with going unnoticed. If not for the captivating quality of his glow, he would be alone, but in the end, he's grateful that he isn't completely alone with his only own cold light. Sasuke is a star as it twinkles, and he's a star as it is unnoticed, and he is a star as it shines.

A planet, revolving in wonderment... Sakura is a planet, specifically, the earth. She is life giving, nurturing, healing while also destructive. She is greatly affected by the sun, the stars, and the sky, her boys, but she's what's there to give them an extra push when they begin to fall. She's there to notice them, to watch them grow, and to care.

The sky, always there, a constant... Kakashi is the sky. He is support, affected and unaffected by the ones who rely on him for structure. The moon, the stars, and the planets, his students, he holds them up in the heavens, pushing them to success as they slowly change him. He depends on the moon and stars as much as they depend on him, and Kakashi is the sky.

Warm, energetic, brightness... Happiness. Things getting done. Naruto is day. He isn't one to sit around in the dark, thinking. He's out, in the light, taking action. Carpe diem and all that jazz. He is as people see him. Loud, kind, generous, at times annoying, but he's an open book. What you see is what you get with him. Naruto is day.

Secrecy, silence, stealth... Darkness. A cool that seeps into your bones. If Naruto is day, then Sasuke is night. Aside from the comparison of appearance, Sasuke is often cold, and definitely doesn't describe happiness. Sasuke is things getting done whether or not everyone else realizes it. Like night, people are drawn in by the romantic mystery. But like obscuring darkness, few have see past the walls to the real Sasuke, the Sasuke that escapes in the brightness of day, the Sasuke that only makes himself known with Naruto, like the land revealed by the sun. Sasuke is night in obscuring darkness, he is night when the wan light of the moon glows eerily, and he is night as a robbers creeps with stealth.

Beginnings, starts, commencement... Colors. Ushering in brightness from the dark. Sakura is dawn. She's a medium between Naruto's sleeve-riding heart and Sasuke's shadowy barriers. She prefers action over stealth, but realizes value in both. She crosses lines and softens boundaries, leading to that beautiful sky of colors between the night and day.

Grays, neutrals, fading shadows... Twilight. A lackluster moon beginning to peek over the horizon. If the above is true, Kakashi is dusk. He's a mid-tone and a mediator. He's their teacher and their role model. He favors secrecy instead of charging head-on, but sees how successful either can be. He forges the divide between day and night, setting out a balance that may unfortunately favor darkness, favor Sasuke, but really it's because he understands Sasuke the way Sakura understands Naruto. He's the grey hours of twilight, often in the background, ushering the others in, so Kakashi is dusk.

Of course, just because Sakura understands Naruto and Kakashi understands Sasuke, they aren't necessarily the best working teams. Kakashi understands Sasuke because both have lived a life of disappointment, expectations, and the need to be the best. Sakura and Naruto's personalities are alike, but that's where the similarities end.

Sakura sees both Naruto and Sasuke as her younger brothers, and, when working in a partnership with either, will take illogical risks because of her difficulty in letting them go because of the dangers to their safety.

Sasuke and Kakashi have the same mindset when it comes to strategy, or stealth, but Sasuke is still learning respect and often forgets his place next to his elder, his teacher.

Naruto and Kakashi have respect figured out in terms of the hierarchy, but Naruto often acts too immature, or Kakashi comes down too hard on him, seeing his grins added together with his attitude and coming up with the wrong sum.

Kakashi and Sakura work well together, but as a woman, Sakura is gentle and nurturing. She's a healer, while Kakashi is still struggling with the concept of mercy.

Naruto and Sasuke are, by far, the best partnership of their team. Despite their fierce rivalry, they're brothers in every sense of the word but genetics. As two extremes, they balance each other out, and in truth, they are more alike than different. Of course they fight, but when it comes down to the wire, they're one of the best teams Kakashi thinks he's ever seen. Opposites and at the same time, twin forces of will and power striking down enemies in a fluid, graceful dance. It's a sure thing that they could take the world by storm if they saw fit to.

It's interesting, though, how alike Sasuke and Naruto's relationship is to that of Kakashi and his own comrade Uchiha. Except that Naruto and Sasuke have definitely rubbed off on each other, while in Kakashi's story, realization came too late. You can see the changes in Sasuke and Naruto, though. Sasuke shows his emotions more freely, although only around Naruto, but Naruto's slowly chipping away at the walls Sasuke has up to the public. Naruto thinks before acting and remembers he doesn't always have to put on a cheerful face because his team, his family, will love him anyway.

Because, in the end, you see a family. Screwed up and confusing as heck at times, perhaps, but a family. There are the times when Kakashi's like the patriarch, and Sakura's the big sister and Sasuke and Naruto might be twins. At other times, Sakura acts like the mother to all three of her boys, and Kakashi's the big brother while Sasuke and Naruto might, again, be twins. Or there are those multiple times when Sasuke and Naruto are fighting like an old married couple, and Kakashi and Sakura, as undisclosed relatives, look on with amusement.

Perhaps Naruto's the dad, and Sakura and Sasuke are the kids, and Kakashi might be the old granddad or the crazy old uncle no one dares associate with but who everyone loves. Or Sakura's the daughter and her three boys are her fathers, protecting and watching out for her. Sometimes, when Naruto and Sakura bicker, Sasuke and Kakashi are their parents, Sasuke slowly getting more and more annoyed until he forces Kakashi to separate the two children.

Maybe they're all siblings. There are no definite roles, but whatever they are, they're a family, first and foremost. They're friends and teammates as well, but those priorities change as situations change. But no matter the occasion, they'll always be a family.

This is all, of course, coming from a preceding relationship, the wrong sum, the late realizer and an old comrade Uchiha. But looking after my own kin, the biological one and the other that isn't but for a single eye that genetically belongs to me, you could say that I just pick up on things that others can't or don't.

Then again, I might just be crazy.


End file.
